United We Stand - UKIP Wales 2017 General Election Manifesto

Health
UKIP is firmly committed to a National Heath Service free at the point of delivery. However, we do not
believe a public service should have a monopoly on public expenditure to the detriment of all other
services. The NHS cannot be a monetary black hole and the managers appointed to run it should not be
permitted to continue to blame their failure to perform on a lack of funding. Real reform is necessary if
the NHS is to survive into the future and UKIP is committed to leading that reform. We can no longer
afford to ignore the elephant in the room, namely that a scandalous proportion of NHS resources are
being swallowed up by senior doctors and managers earning, in some cases, as much as £375,000 per
year in overtime alone.
UKIP would:
1. Create a staffing strategy which takes into account peaks and troughs of demand, future population
increases and demographic changes to ensure the NHS is not forced into paying ludicrous
overtime bills to maintain basic services.
2. Ensure that students receiving NHS bursaries for university courses work for a 3-year minimum
term within an NHS setting following graduation.
3. Review the use of NHS facilities for private practice and the moonlighting of NHS consultants.
4. Ensure low-paid NHS staff who use their private cars for work use are reimbursed in full for their
mileage.
5. Introduce a pay ratio rule within NHS Trusts to ensure that the highest paid staff are not paid
more than 10x their lowest paid counterparts.
6. Ensure mental health services are given real parity with physical health services and that this reflected
in staffing and budget allocations.
7. Not support the continued funding of gender reassignment procedures on the NHS, whilst other
treatments, such as for cancer, remain rationed.
8. Ensure that all those travelling to Wales for work or pleasure, from outside the UK, maintain adequate
travel insurance arrangements to reimburse the NHS for any treatment received during
their stay.
9. Establish ’one stop’ cancer diagnosis and treatment regional centres to lead the fight against cancer
and improve patient survival rates.
10. Establish a limited number of primary care hospitals across Wales, as part of a pilot project to improve
primary care. These hospitals would be GP-led and would be staffed by multi-disciplinary
teams and would take on the role of traditional smaller and under-resourced GP practices with
the aim of improving patient care and reducing waiting times.